{"id":124,"date":"2024-07-30T21:53:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T21:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/?p=124"},"modified":"2024-07-30T21:53:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T21:53:53","slug":"faster-higher-stronger-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/faster-higher-stronger-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Faster, Higher, Stronger \u2013 Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Olympics have returned, this time to Paris, and sports fans throughout the world are taking a break from politics, war, global warming, and the wearying slog of everyday life. The festival kicked off with a weird, rain-soaked spectacle of an opening ceremony. But quickly our TV schedules filled with the sort of sports we rarely get to see, including fencing, wrestling, and horse dancing, aka<\/em> dressage. (Sorry, curling fans, you\u2019ll have to wait until 2026 to see your favorite teams sweeping the ice.) As we write these words on Monday night, Team USA is leading the medal count with 20, although Japan has the lead in gold, with six to our three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympians go for the gold in lots of ways. Some are just looking for medals\u2014and really, is anyone going to call you a failure if that\u2019s all you come home with? Others want to burnish a thriving professional career. (This means you, LeBron.) And others are hoping for their big break, which could mean anything from social media stardom to a picture on a Wheaties box. (Caitlin Jenner has certainly had a wild ride since winning gold in the 1976 decathlon!) And the sports fans at the IRS will have their eyes on all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medals look great in a trophy case. There\u2019s not much financial value in the metal itself\u2014the amount of gold in a medal is around $800, while a silver is worth $450, and a bronze might not buy your favorite footlong at Subway anymore. But think of them as \u201cmemorabilia,\u201d and the value goes way up. Jesse Owens famously won the gold (and embarrassed the Nazis) in Berlin in 1936. His medal sold for $1.47 million in 2013. And a 1980 \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d gold medal sold for $262,900 a year later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But U.S. Olympians who medal in Paris will also bring home cash, specifically, $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. And here\u2019s an extra patriotic bonus\u2014in 2016, Washington passed a law that says Olympians and Paralympians don\u2019t have to pay tax on any of those winnings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, there are limits on the tax-free cash. The exclusion doesn\u2019t apply to athletes with adjusted gross incomes over $1 million. But don\u2019t feel too sorry for LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, or their teammates. The 12 members of our Olympic basketball team are already making a combined $504 million in regular salary. And while they\u2019re ostensibly playing \u201cfor free\u201d in Paris, their sneaker endorsements offer bonus money because the Olympics give them worldwide exposure. But maybe they shouldn\u2019t take those riches for granted\u2014one of their exhibition games nearly saw them lose to South Sudan, a country that most Americans have never even heard of that doesn\u2019t have a single indoor basketball court!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basketball players aren\u2019t the only well-heeled Olympians appearing in Paris. On the golf course, Masters champion Scottie Scheffler has earned over $80 million in his career. (Even his caddy<\/em> gets a $135,000 base salary.) And there will be lots of athletes we\u2019ve never heard of yet who launch six-figure and seven-figure careers on the backs of their wins. Will the next breakout phenom be a skateboarder? A volleyball player? A breakdancer<\/em>? Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 11, it all winds down with a closing ceremony. But the Games will still go on. Just last week, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. (Hopefully, we still have winter in 2034!) The same is true of taxes. So count on us to help navigate your winnings through the maze of taxes, wherever they come from!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Olympians who medal in Paris will also bring home cash, specifically, $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. And here\u2019s an extra patriotic bonus\u2014in 2016, Washington passed a law that says Olympians and Paralympians don\u2019t have to pay tax on any of those winnings!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,53,54,4,10,11,9,6,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-olympian","9":"tag-olympics","10":"tag-paris","11":"tag-tax","12":"tag-tax-reduction","13":"tag-tax-savings","14":"tag-tax-strategy","15":"tag-taxes","16":"tag-wealth-tax","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bourbonnaistax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}